Prabowo Calls For Quick Action To Build School Liaison Bridge

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto called for quick and extraordinary steps to address the issue of access to education in remote areas, especially regarding children who have to cross the river every day to go to school.

The President conveyed this call in his speech at the 2025 Bank Indonesia (PTBI) Annual Meeting in Jakarta, Friday night.

"These are the children who have to cross the river every day. They risk their lives for school every day, their clothes are wet in the classroom," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, November 28.

In front of leaders of state institutions, economic elites, and industry players, the President played a video showing children crossing rivers without bridges.

He called this condition a reality for students in remote areas of Indonesia which must be addressed by the state immediately.

"Our poorest people, the lowest people cannot wait. They must be able to immediately take action to defend them," the President emphasized.

The President revealed temporary data showing that around 300 thousand similar river crossing points still occur in various parts of Indonesia.

He stated that the achievement of economic growth should not make the government forget the suffering of the people who face risks every day in order to demand knowledge.

"The growth rate is very good, but our children enter the river every day, wet, sit in the wet class, come back wet again. This is what I ask, we as state managers, think," he said.

To that end, the President announced the establishment of the Village Bridge Emergency Task Force, a special team mandated to build small bridges and safe access lines throughout vulnerable areas.

Prabowo ordered the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, to deploy level 2 students from civil engineering majors to go directly to villages to design bridges.

To the TNI and Polri through the entire zeni battalion and construction company, they were ordered to jump into building a bridge structure in the shortest possible time.

Presiden Prabowo mengatakan pendekatan bureaucratis sepertifeasibility study atau seminar akan dipangkas dalam misi ini.

"We don't have to talk about the feasibility study, seminars, it takes too long. Our children are screaming, we have to answer," he said.